


At the end of Winter

by underthenorthstar



Series: Tumblr Fics [8]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Death, Gen, Sad, The End of the Line, The Winter Soldier - Freeform, i teared up writing this one, minor description of blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 07:43:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11709942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underthenorthstar/pseuds/underthenorthstar
Summary: Bucky Barnes lives out his final moments.





	At the end of Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my Tumblr. All the sad feels.

It feels different than he thought it would feel.

He expected a lot more pain, a lot more anguish and despair. Instead, he just feels.....cold. Cold and quiet. He can hear his heart thumping unsteadily, every minute getting softer and softer. The monotone drip drip of blood, the wheeze of air leaving the gaping hole in his side. Everything about his body is amplified, as if it wants him to hear it give its last stand.

Steve is yelling at him through the comm, telling him to "hold on, Buck, just hold on" but he knows he isn't going to. This is it. His twisted, pitiful life is writing the last pages of its book. And to be honest, it's the way he would choose. Giving himself for the cause, to save some poor innocent souls whose hands are not stained with blood. Saving his team, saving the scrawny kid from Brooklyn with the giant heart. 

He spent years as the executioner. He's proud to now be the sacrifice. 

Steve is still yelling. He can hear other voices, footsteps running as they try to get to him. He hopes someone can make it. If he is to ask the Almightly one last thing, it would be to not die alone. He has been alone for most of his life. He doesn't deserve any boon, but he utters a soft prayer none the less. He is most likely heading for flames and unending pain, perhaps heaven will pity him and allow him his last wish. 

His heart grows quieter. His breaths grow shallower. The cold is so deep in his bones; his name of Winter is truly fitting now. He closes his eyes. He is so tired. 

Footsteps ring across the room. Someone kneels beside him. They don't try to stop the bleeding. They simply slip their hand into his.

"Go in peace, soldat."

And he is no longer in the dark, ruined room, but in his house in Brooklyn, his mother cooking at the stove while his father reads the paper. Baby Becca coos happily from her high chair. Steve and his mother are sitting across from him at the table; she is teaching them a card game. His faltering heart gives a lurch. It's one of the only memories he was able to recover. Wanda remembered. Over cold coffee and burnt toast one morning when the nightmares were too much, it had spilled from his lips. And she had remembered.

The hum of her magic pulls tight around him. He musters the last of his strength the squeeze her small hand gently. Thank you, the gesture says. Thank you, but could you do one last thing for me?

She knows. She always knows. She presses a soft kiss to his forehead. "I will tell him you love him," she whispers. "I will tell him goodbye."

And with that, he is content. He pulls at the last tiny tether holding him to earth, and lets it snap.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

And all is quiet.

He is not greeted by a devil. There is not darkness, no flames, no pain. 

Instead, a familiar face smiles at him, radiant and proud. Everything is bright, happy, peaceful. He is young and whole, his own two arms at his sides. A slim hand extends to him in welcome. 

"Come on, soldier," Peggy Carter's voice is exactly how he knew it. "It's time for some rest, don't you think?"

And so James Buchanan Barnes shakes off the last cold vestiges of Winter, and steps into the warmth of Spring.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr: underthenorthstar


End file.
